ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY IS PART OF MOST MODERN DEVELOPMENTS AND ON THE SWAN COASTAL PLAIN, WHERE PERTH IS LOCATED, IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT GIVEN WE ARE LOCATED IN ONE OF THE TOP TWENTY BIODIVERSITY HOT SPOTS IN THE WORLD.
With local, state and federal government environmental approvals applying to many developments it can be a minefield trying to get through the approval process. One threatened species is Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo which is a long lived, slow breeding bird on the national list of endangered species. Whilst clearing of land in the Wheatbelt where the birds breed and on the Swan Coastal where they spend the summer are factors, their numbers are impacted by competition with the more aggressive white cockatoo for nesting holes and declining rainfall which reduces their food supply.
Carnaby’s cockatoos forage in the Banksia Woodland of the Swan Coastal Plain and developers design new projects to preserve significant areas of habitat.
Many go much further than simply retaining areas of Banksia Woodland within their projects. Developers will collect seed and restore degraded areas or landscape with relevant native plants in parks and reserves. They also provide front yard landscaping that supports Carnaby’s Cockatoo as part of the house and land package.
Developers also help fund research on the bird’s life cycle.
There is a need for an holistic plan and clearer definitions to avoid different interpretations being applied to assessments. The State Government is currently working on a strategic assessment approach which will take a whole of region approach rather than the project by project approach used currently. They are also working on a recovery plan as the current one is almost a decade old and doesn’t take into consideration recent research.
Strategic assessment will provide more certainty for both conservation groups and the development industry. There will, hopefully, be clarity about where and how land can be developed and the approach to development that will be supported by government.
Importantly it will also remove the dual assessment by state and federal government agencies, rolling both into a single state assessment.
Change takes time and the draft document will not be released until April 2013. Meanwhile, developers are continuing to work with agencies to deliver environmentally sustainable projects and affordable housing, a combination that can be extremely difficult to achieve as the delays in negotiating the environmental outcomes add to the costs.
With summer Carnaby’s Cockatoos will be returning to Perth and will hopefully continue to do so for many years.